Research Guides: Primary Sources in American History and Culture: Visual Representations of the Past

Visual Representations of the Past

Prior to the 20th century there was limited access by the public to visual images. Paintings, photographs, advertisements, woodcuts or lithographs in magazines were the media used to transmit a visual story. Whether stored in archives or libraries, housed in museums, or even part of our architectural landscape, these visual remnants provide insight into the life and times of past generations.

Finding Visual Documentation

The following websites are good sources for those using the visual to document the past:

American Memory
This Library of Congress site has pictures, broadsides and other visual materials pertaining to American history and culture.
New York Public Library Digital Gallery
A digital gallery of over 685,000 images.
NYPL Picture Collection Online
This picture collection is from the Mid-Manhattan library.
American Cartoon Prints
This Library of Congress site spans the period 1794-1994 and includes political, editorial and humerous cartoon and caricatures.
Archive of Early American Images
A database of pictures of the colonial Americas from 1492-1825 from the John Carter Brown Library.
Cabinet of American Illustration
Another Library of Congress collection contatining 4,000 drawings and prints from 1850-1930.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Thousands of American paintings and sculpture from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Museum of the City of New York
This museum has many of its collections of prints and photographs on-line.

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Jessica Wagner Webster

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Newman Library, 523

Subjects: History, Information Studies